'LIVE with Kelly and Michael" announces Suzette Steward as winner of 'LIVE'S 2013 Top Teacher Search'

by jmaloni

Press release

Tue, May 7th 2013 08:05 pm

This
morning on "LIVE with Kelly and Michael," hosts Kelly Ripa and
Michael Strahan announced that Suzette Steward from Katy, Texas, was
chosen as the winner of "LIVE's 2013 Top Teacher Search."

Steward
is a special education teacher at Cinco Ranch Junior High. After she
was announced as one of the 12 semi-finalists selected from thousands
of viewer-submitted nominations, she went on to be named one of five
finalists who flew to New York last week to appear on "LIVE."
From May 3-6, "LIVE's" viewers voted on which of the finalists
should be named Top Teacher. Today, Steward was surprised by Ripa and
Strahan with the news live on the air via satellite during the show,
as the beloved teacher was surrounded by students and fellow
educators in front of the school.

Steward
received the grand prize, a brand-new 2014 Ford Escape. In addition,
"LIVE" partnered with The Hillshire Brands Company to give
Steward's school $25,000.

Steward
was nominated by parent Lisa Clements. In addition to her zest for
teaching and exemplary work at school with her students, Steward
decided to take the fun and learning outside of the classroom and
opened a camp to which her students can come on the weekends and
during holiday and summer breaks. Clements wrote, "Suzette saw a
'need' for these kids to have a fun place to go and expand their
social skills and abilities, as well as increase their academic
standings."

Each
day during "Top Teacher Week," Ripa and Strahan surprised the
finalists with a wide variety of gifts as a "thank you" for all
that they do for their students and their communities. The gifts for
the schools included 30 Intel-powered Lenovo Thinkpad 2 Tablets; 30
Intel Inspired Toshiba Ultrabook Convertibles; a new school
playground from GameTime; five Insight 360 classroom instruction
systems from eInstruction; and 30 Surface tablets pre-loaded with
Skype from Microsoft. Among the surprises for the teachers were a
$5,000 gift certificate from Talbot's, a luxurious trip to The
Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, and a backyard makeover courtesy of
Lowe's.